Gleason: Clueless Woody tries Jets fans' patience

Imagine, if you can, Giants owner John Mara, from a football family that expects greatness, taking a moment with reporters one fine afternoon when someone mentions the "P'' word. Not playoffs — patience. Should Giants fans exercise patience this season, Mara is asked, and he replies, "I think that's absolutely perfect. Yes, be patient.''

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By KEVIN GLEASON

recordonline.com

By KEVIN GLEASON

Posted May. 8, 2013 at 2:00 AM

By KEVIN GLEASON
Posted May. 8, 2013 at 2:00 AM

Mara confident cruz will get signed

NEWARK, N.J. — Giants owner John Mara says progress is slow but steady in the contract negotiations between the team and Pro Bowl wide receiver Victor Cruz.

Mara also says he's confi...

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Mara confident cruz will get signed

NEWARK, N.J. — Giants owner John Mara says progress is slow but steady in the contract negotiations between the team and Pro Bowl wide receiver Victor Cruz.

Mara also says he's confident a deal will be reached. Mara made his comments Tuesday on NFL.com.

Cruz caught 86 passes for 1,092 yards and 10 touchdowns last season, tops on the team.

The Giants allowed Cruz to test the free agent market by making him a first-round tender, but no other team offered him a deal. He can play for roughly $2.9 million, but wants a long-term deal. He has been absent from the team's voluntary offseason program.

Mara says the Giants "are the right place" for Cruz to play and a deal "will eventually" get done.

The Associated Press

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Imagine, if you can, Giants owner John Mara, from a football family that expects greatness, taking a moment with reporters one fine afternoon when someone mentions the "P'' word. Not playoffs — patience. Should Giants fans exercise patience this season, Mara is asked, and he replies, "I think that's absolutely perfect. Yes, be patient.''

Anyone who has seen or heard Mara's high-pitched reactions to his team's blunders while seated inside a press box know he would never preach patience. In fact, anyone who knows anything about Mara, about the Giants, knows he would never say such a thing. He would be more inclined to snarl, "Patience is for losers.''

Jets owner Woody Johnson, of course, is no John Mara. By his quotes, Johnson could be mistaken for Fred Wilpon, another New York owner largely oblivious to what encompasses building a perennial winner. Johnson, like Wilpon, rarely speaks to the media, because it forces them to dig deeply for sensible answers and accept a measure of accountability.

And so when Johnson was asked if patience would be his theme to fans, he told ESPN and other reporters at an NFL symposium, "I think that's absolutely perfect.''

Actually, it's absolutely insane. Patience? Johnson is lucky that there are any Jets fans left for all the abuse they've endured — malcontents disguised as professional football players, atrocious performances, worse personnel and coaching decisions.

And that is just in the past two seasons, when the Jets have lost 18 of 32 games, including 13 of their last 19.

Patience?

Patience, when Johnson is asking fans to write enormous checks to secure their seat and purchase tickets to use it, that mind-boggling NFL fan abuse known as personal seat licensing?

Patience?

After a season in which their big offseason acquisition was acquiring Tim Tebow, then failing to use him? A season in which fans had to watch their quarterback regress to an embarrassingly poor level with virtually no help around him?

Patience?

Jets fans have been arguably one of the most patience groups in New York sports. They would have stopped cheering this franchise long ago without possessing sky-high levels of tolerance. You know how many winnings seasons the Jets have had out of the past 30?

Thirteen.

And of course, a mere 44 seasons have passed since the Jets won their only Super Bowl.

Johnson finally got around to commenting on the Tebow mess, eight days after releasing him. "Just one of those things,'' the owner said. When "you make a decision that doesn't help the team, you move on. You have to learn to do that.''

Unfortunately, the Jets have had a lot of practice. They teased fans by going a collective 29-19 and reaching consecutive conference title games from 2008-10. But they have been painfully inadequate since late in the 2011 season. Johnson fired his general manager and offensive coordinator, both perfectly logical moves. The new GM, John Idzik, deserves a fair shot at turning around the program. But that doesn't mean the Jets are allowed to put in another stinker this season.

If Johnson plans to discount the 2013 season in the name of rebuilding — if that's his definition of patience — he should just say so. That way, Jets fans can stop supporting the team monetarily. But Johnson can't request fans to both fill seats and be patient, not of a franchise with the Jets' track record.